The big mystery of the OUA in 2008 is the Ottawa Gee Gees team who after running roughshod through the 2007 regular season, were upset by Western in the 2nd round of the playoffs after a bye, and have not found their legs in 2008. Expectations were high with few key personnel losses, a veteran QB, and an influx of former All-Star calibre transfers-in. But performances have not met early expectations, so despite a high talent quotient, Ottawa comes into this game with a 3-3 record, behind Queen's (6-0), Western (5-1) and Laurier (4-2) and tied with Guelph, McMaster and Windsor for 4th (or 7th if you take the pessimistic view).

Ottawa will be hungry, wanting to solidify their playoff hopes. The Golden Gaels on the other hand, bitterly remember their game in Ottawa in 2007 when to their mind, the game was stolen by a bad spot of the ball during the anticipated winning drive. This will be a great test of the Gaels' ability to take out a wounded opponent.

In the much anticipated matchup between the Golden Gaels and Gee Gees, the question was whether the Gaels’ gaudy 6-0 record was as good as it looked, and if the Ottawa 3-3 record was as bad as it looked, given the three losses were only by a total of 7 points. The jury’s in, and the verdict has been pronounced. The Gaels are full measure for their now 7-0 record, and have clinched first place in the OUA while the Gee Gees are in a battle for their playoff lives, likely needing some help to ensure they end up as one of the top 6 teams in the OUA.

The Gaels went up quickly to a 21-0 lead on TD passes from Danny Brannagan to Devan Sheahan and Mark Surya and a short TD run by Brannagan – all in the first quarter. The second quarter saw a Dan Village field goal, and a TD pass to Blaise Morrison, for a 31-0 lead at halftime.

In the 3rd quarter, Ottawa got on the board with a conceded safety by Queen’s which was followed by Sheahan’s 2nd TD catch. The 4th quarter wasn’t pretty as the Gaels allowed 2 rushing TD’s to no score for the Gaels.

Along the way, Danny Brannagan threw for 4 TD’s and 341 yards (21 of 33 passes), and 2 interceptions – one out of the hands of Mike Giffin and another on a broken play into the Gee Gee end zone. Surya, Sheahan and Morrison all recorded their first touchdowns of the season. Mike Giffin was held to 72 yards on 21 carries, but did go over 1,000 yards on the season, and reached 3,018 yards to set the Queen’s career record for rushing yards. Brannagan broke Tom Denison’s career passing record, reaching 7792 yards. Scott Valberg, although shut out of the end zone in this game, had 6 catches for 131 yards and Devan Sheahan had 114 yards on 5 receptions. Scott Stinson also had 5 catches, for 48 yards, many of which were with multiple Gee Gees on his back. Overall, Queen’s had 427 yards in net offense to the Gee Gees 301.

The Queen’s D held Ottawa to just 2 late TD’s. Josh Sacobie, the leading passer in the country was held to 202 yards and no passing TD’s. Osie Ukwuoma had 2 sacks and 3 tackles. Mike “Hitman” Botting had 1 pick and a number of huge hits which no doubt contributed to Josh Sacobie’s 44.7% completion rate. Chris Smith was the leading tackler with 6, while TJ Leeper had 4.5, and Jimmy Allin, Kyle Macdonald and Dave Rooney each had 4 tackles.

Jimmy Allin had a total of 149 yards on 3 punt and 3 kick returns. Dan Village was good on one of two field goal attempts, and with 5 converts accounted for 8 points.

Stats wise, the Gaels continued their national rankings. They are now one of just two undefeated teams (along with Laval) after SMU’s loss to Montreal. They top the points scored list with 336, ahead of Western with 316 and Laval with 229. Their points against of 94 rank #4, with Laval #1 in the country with only 49 points against.

Brannagan is #2 in passing yards with 2065 and leads the country in passing TD’s with 21. The next closest are Faulds and Sacobie with 15.

Giffin is #1 in rushing yards with 1045 and in rushing TD’s with 12. He is also #1 in scoring with 84 points on 14 total touchdowns.

Valberg is #1 in receiving yards with 871 and in receiving TD’s with 9, and is tied for #12 in total scoring with 54 points (although the only non-kicker ahead of him is Giffin.

Village is #5 in scoring with 66 points on 11 field goals, 30 converts and 3 singles. He is #8 in punting yardage averaging 40.2 yards a punt. He is #5 in percentage of punts downed within the 20-yard line with 38.5%.

Dee Sterling and Osie Ukwuoma are tied for #1 in sacks with 7.5 on the year.

Jimmy Allin is #2 in the country with a 15.6 yard per punt return average. He is also tied for #8 with 3 interceptions.

The Gaels last regular season game is on October 18 at 1:00pm versus the Waterloo Warriors at Waterloo Stadium (not Seagram Stadium at Laurier). The following game after that will be on November 1 at Richardson Stadium in the OUA’s Yates Cup semifinal against the lowest remaining seed.

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All photos are Copyright (c) Jeff Chan 2000-2008, but may be used for personal non-commercial use, and by Queen's University, the CIS and its member conferences, and by the Vanier Cup, so long as photo credits are shown or the photos are otherwise attributed to Jeff Chan. All other rights are reserved.